‘Dog the Bounty Hunter’ Announces Future of His Career Following Wife’s Diagnoses

After his wife was diagnosed with Stage II throat cancer in September, Duane “Dog” Chapman said being with his family is more important than his bounty hunting business.

During an interview with TooFab.com, Beth and Duane said they were stepping away from their reality television show “Dog the Bounty Hunter” to focus on her battle to overcome throat cancer.

The Chapman’s efforts to overcome this tragedy will be chronicled on an A&E’s two-hour special “Dog and Beth: Fight of Their Lives,” which premieres on Nov. 27.

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After Beth underwent a 13-hour surgery to have a tumor removed from her throat, the Chapman’s said they wanted to spend quality time together.

“I’m lucky to be sharing Thanksgiving with my family, and I’m lucky to be here for these holidays,” Beth told TooFab.

“You take it day by day and you don’t try to take on more than you can handle,” she added. “I’ve tried to cut stress seriously out of my diet. It really does bad things to you. My voice is not strong all the time, it comes and goes sometimes and sometimes it just stops.”

Beth said the diagnosis and procedures have been very difficult and scary for her family.

“It was hard to wake up every day and know you still have it, it’s still in your body, cancer is alive and well inside me and that wasn’t a good place to be,” she said. “I had a hard time sleeping, I would wake up and just look at him sleeping thinking, ‘How is he ever going to make it without me? How will he find his car keys.’ He doesn’t think about those things.”

Beth said they wanted to share the experience with their fan base given the support they’ve received through the bounty hunting business and show for many years.

Beth added that she hopes that her road from surgery to recovery can help inspire others who are fighting to overcome a tragedy in their lives.

“I felt like our fans have been so loyal to us that we really owed it to share it with them,” Beth said. “So that if I could be a blessing to even one person, help one person get early detection, then we really owed it to them to show the struggle and show that you can make it, you can get through it, you just need to have a positive attitude.”

Dog said it would be tough to walk away from their business, but said sustaining longevity in life was much more important to him.

When asked about what other professions he could see himself working in, Dog said he had always wanted to work in law enforcement.

“I would hope that whatever I did people could profit and get happy about it,” he said. “I like to see, laugh and cry when it’s in a good way. I don’t know.”

For 40 years, I’ve done bounty hunting. I think it’d have to be something in law enforcement. It’s just amazing, we’re taking it day to day, it’s amazing she’s alive,” he added.

Dog said that he has turned to God to help his family overcome the difficult situation with his wife.

“We’re so glad that people prayed to God, there’s a God. I made some deals with him this time,” he said. “I made some good deals. I just thank God he’s still with us.”